Thousands in Azerbaijan Protest Election

By JUDITH INGRAM, The Associated Press, Thursday, November 10, 2005; 12:09 AM

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Thousands of demonstrators jammed a square in Azerbaijan's capital Wednesday, charging fraud in last weekend's parliamentary elections and calling for the government to resign.

The protesters entreated the United States to press the oil-rich former Soviet republic to institute full democracy.

A group of opposition supporters discuss at the People's Front of Azerbaijan building in Baku, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005. Azerbaijan's election commission on Tuesday annulled the results of the weekend parliamentary vote in two electoral districts and ordered a recount in another, while the ruling party claimed victory.(AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

"Our struggle can end only in victory," Ali Kerimli, one of the three major opposition leaders, told the crowd.

The thousands rallied in answer to a call by the opposition movement following Sunday's parliamentary elections that international observers said did not meet democratic standards. Many in the crowd also called for the government to resign.

Some 15,000 protesters walked down a four-lane road, closed to traffic, under a sea of orange flags _ a color they borrowed from Ukraine's protests that forced a new election after charges of fraud.

But the numbers were well short of the 30,000 to 50,000 the opposition had hoped for.

The Central Election Commission, meanwhile, awarded a legislative seat to Kerimli after a recount _ raising the possibility that the government could try to defuse the protest movement by awarding a few more parliamentary seats to the opposition.

President Ilham Aliev's office also announced the firing of two regional governors accused of interfering in the elections and prosecutors said four election officials from local commissions had been detained on suspicion of falsifying balloting results and abuse of office.

The ruling New Azerbaijan Party on Tuesday claimed victory, winning 63 of the 125 seats in the legislature, according to preliminary official results.

Aliev's spokesman, Azer Gasimov, accused the opposition of exaggerating the foreign observers' criticism. He emphasized that the observer mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe had pointed to Azerbaijan's failure to meet some _ not all _ international election standards.

The Azadliq, or Freedom, opposition coalition called its next rally for Saturday.

In a show of force, 300 riot police wearing helmets and armed with shields stood in rows on the square, while others stood on nearby rooftops. Many plainclothes agents appeared to be mingling in the crowd.

"Police, let us vote for freedom!" shouted knots of young men who stood a few feet from the riot police.

Patriotic songs were piped through a loudspeaker in the square, framed by two huge billboard portraits of late strongman leader, Geidar Aliev, father of the current president.

The Aliev family has dominated for decades, and the opposition has built much of its base on popular dissatisfaction with the corruption and poverty that grip the Caspian Sea nation in spite of its great potential oil wealth.

One protester's sign read: "President Bush, Don't Fail Us Now!" Another poster demanded: "Stop trading our democracy for oil."

The opposition fears that the U.S. interest in Azerbaijan's energy riches will trump its stated commitment to expanding democracy around the world. Azerbaijan is the starting point for an oil pipeline to the Mediterranean, a project Washington strongly backed as a way of reducing dependence on Middle East oil.

While the Azadliq coalition, which called the march, is trying to emulate the movements that brought opposition leaders to power after disputed elections in Georgia and Ukraine, it lacks some of their strengths, including organization and loyalty.

The coalition also has been pushed far to the margins of political life, in part through the detentions of its activists and frequent bans on demonstrations.

But it has been buoyed by Western observers' criticism of the polls for falling short of democratic standards and the reversal of some results. The Central Election Commission annulled Sunday's vote in two electoral districts and ordered a recount in a third.

The commission annulled the results in 12 of 44 precincts in Binaqadi district, where the governing party contender had been declared winner. As the opposition candidate was leading in all the precincts that were not annulled, the commission's decision apparently unseats the ruling party candidate.

But Aliev's New Azerbaijan party will retain a majority with the support of government-affiliated independent lawmakers.

Associated Press writer Aida Sultanova in Baku contributed to this report.

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